IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/feemcl/189411.html

Canada – Renewable Energy: Implications for WTO Law on Green and Not-so-Green Subsidies

Author

Listed:
  • Charnovitz, Steve
  • Fischer, Carolyn

Abstract

In the first dispute on renewable energy to come to WTO dispute settlement, the domestic content requirement of Ontario’s feed-in tariff was challenged as a discriminatory investment-related measure and as a prohibited import substitution subsidy. The panel and Appellate Body agreed that Canada was violating the GATT and the TRIMS Agreement. But the SCM Article 3 claim by Japan and the European Union remains unadjudicated, because neither tribunal made a finding that the price guaranteed for electricity from renewable sources constitutes a ‘benefit’ pursuant to the SCM Agreement. Although the Appellate Body provides useful guidance to future panels on how the existence of a benefit could be calculated, the most noteworthy aspect of the new jurisprudence is the Appellate Body’s reasoning that delineating the proper market for ‘benefit’ analysis entails respect for the policy choices made by a government. Thus, in this dispute, the proper market is electricity produced only from wind and solar energy.

Suggested Citation

  • Charnovitz, Steve & Fischer, Carolyn, "undated". "Canada – Renewable Energy: Implications for WTO Law on Green and Not-so-Green Subsidies," Climate Change and Sustainable Development 189411, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:feemcl:189411
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.189411
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/189411/files/NDL2014-094.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.189411?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Fischer, Carolyn, "undated". "Strategic Subsidies for Green Goods," MITP: Mitigation, Innovation and Transformation Pathways 234311, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    2. Carolyn Fischer, 2017. "Environmental Protection for Sale: Strategic Green Industrial Policy and Climate Finance," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 66(3), pages 553-575, March.
    3. Ornelas, Emanuel & Puccio, Laura, 2020. "Reopening Pandora's Box in Search of a WTO-Compatible Industrial Policy? The Brazil–Taxation Dispute," World Trade Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(2), pages 249-266, April.
    4. Harri Kalimo & Filip Sedefov & Max S. Jansson, 2017. "Market definition as value reconciliation: the case of renewable energy promotion under the WTO Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 427-443, June.
    5. Bown, Chad & Crowley, Meredith A., 2016. "The Empirical Landscape of Trade Policy," CEPR Discussion Papers 11216, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Fischer, Carolyn & Greaker, Mads & Rosendahl, Knut Einar, 2017. "Robust technology policy against emission leakage: The case of upstream subsidies," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 44-61.
    7. Bougette, Patrice & Charlier, Christophe, 2015. "Renewable energy, subsidies, and the WTO: Where has the ‘green’ gone?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 407-416.
    8. Denis A. Lavrov & Svetlana V. Karpova & Vladimir I. Avdiyskiy & Svetlana E. Dubova & Svetlana V. Makar & Natalia A. Barmenkova & Nataliya A. Kazakova & Nikolay P. Kushchev, 2021. "Green Electricity and Heat Generation in Canada: Implications for Russia," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 11(3), pages 280-289.
    9. Fischer, Carolyn & Greaker, Mads & Rosendahl, Knut Einar, 2018. "Strategic technology policy as a supplement to renewable energy standards," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 84-98.
    10. Julie L. MacArthur, 2017. "Trade, Tarsands and Treaties: The Political Economy Context of Community Energy in Canada," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-20, March.
    11. Nelson, Douglas & Puccio, Laura, 2021. "Nihil novi sub sole: The Need for Rethinking WTO and Green Subsidies in Light of United States – Renewable Energy," World Trade Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(4), pages 491-508, October.
    12. Sohag, Kazi & Islam, Md. Monirul & Hammoudeh, Shawkat, 2024. "From policy stringency to environmental resilience: Unraveling the dose-response dynamics of environmental parameters in OECD countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    13. Ornelas, Emanuel & Puccio, Laura, 2019. "Reopening Pandora’s Box in Search of a WTO-Compatible Industrial Policy? The Brazil -Taxation Dispute," CEPR Discussion Papers 14042, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    14. Michelle Limenta & Lili Yan Ing, 2022. "Indonesia’s Local Content Requirements: Assessment with WTO Rules," Working Papers DP-2021-47, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA).
    15. Kayla Stan & Graham A. Watt & Arturo Sanchez-Azofeifa, 2021. "Financial stability in response to climate change in a northern temperate economy," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-10, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    JEL classification:

    • K33 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - International Law
    • Q48 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Government Policy
    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:feemcl:189411. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/feemmit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.